Secret Service scandal alarming

April 18, 2012

News nearly a dozen Secret Service agents sent to Colombia to protect President Barack Obama were sent home for misconduct should shock - and worry - Americans.

Secret Service agents are sent in advance to destinations where presidential visits are planned. Some of those dispatched to Cartagena, Colombia took women who may have been prostitutes to their rooms, according to reports.

The many dangers of such behavior are obvious - and no doubt, Secret Service agents are aware of them.

Misconduct by federal officials and employees who waste taxpayers' money is bad enough. But when misdeeds risk chipping away at the cordon protecting the president of the United States, they are positively frightening.

Obama should be able to rely on everyone in his Secret Service detail. Clearly, he cannot. That needs to be investigated - and corrected, whatever it takes.

---

A Butler County, Ohio man has been indicted on 10 felony counts of stealing from victims of severe storms in Ohio and Kentucky. We can think of few more despicable crimes.

Authorities say Joshua Salyers, 39, took money from storm victims, promising to repair damage to their property - then never returned. He raked in more than $43,000 from at least nine residents of four counties in Ohio and one in Kentucky. Those are just the victims of whom police were aware when the grand jury met.

If Salyers is guilty, he should be punished as severely as the law permits. The level of cruelty necessary to commit such crimes makes it clear anyone guilty of them is a menace to society.